Entertainment
The Bachelorette finalist Justin Glaze apologizes for past ‘racist and homophobic tweets’: ‘It was ignorant and hurtful’
The Bachelorette contestant Justin Glaze has spoken out after past problematic tweets were unearthed by Reddit users (Picture: ABC)
The Bachelorette finalist Justin Glaze has publicly apologized for recently unearthed colorist and homophobic tweets he posted as a teenager.
The 29-year-old reality star spoke out about his past behavior during his appearance on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast in a conversation with Becca Kufrin and guest co-host Tayshia Adams.
The tweets, written between 2009 and 2011 when Glaze was 14, resurfaced on Reddit over the weekend.
In the posts, Glaze used homophobic slurs and made insulting comments about Black women while also promoting colorism.
Glaze, an investment sales consultant, admitted he ‘just wanted to fit in’ when he wrote the ‘ignorant and hurtful’ messages on social media.
He explained: ‘As I reflect on everything I just went through with this whole journey, oftentimes people ask me what I took from it.
The reality star has apologized for the ‘ignorant and hurtful’ comments he made aged 14 (Picture: ABC)
‘And one of the biggest takeaways for me was just my personal growth, and one of those things is being able to hold myself accountable, which is something that historically I wasn’t able to do. So, I have no issue with owning up and apologizing from the bottom of my heart for the really hurtful words that I used.’
He continued: ‘The last thing that I want to do is run from it. That’s not who I am. I just want to speak from the heart, and hopefully, people will get an understanding of where I was then versus where I am now.
‘When I look back at 14-year-old Justin, I was in high school and quite frankly I was the type of person who for whatever reason felt the need to fit in and say funny things and keep up with what my peers were doing and saying. He concluded.’
He recalled: ‘The folks I had associated with would throw around really hurtful slurs that, at the time, I didn’t really think anything of. What I said was ignorant and hurtful then [and ] it’s ignorant and hurtful now.
More: US TV news
During this season of The Bachelorette, the Baltimore-based artist had been competing to win the heart of Katie Thurston.
The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC in the US, and is available to stream on hayu in the UK.
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